The Spooky Men's Chorale: Two parts stupidity, one part beauty

By Nick Galvin

With their dedication to "pointless grandeur" and an endless search for the perfect "boofchord", the Spooky Men's Chorale has never been easy to pigeonhole.

The Spooky Men's Chorale at the National Folk Festival 2015.

Photo: Supplied

The self-described "vast, rumbling, steam-powered and black-clad behemoth" comprises two parts stupidity to one part beauty, says musical director and spookmeister-in-chief Stephen Taberner.

But it was never supposed to turn out like this 16 years ago when Taberner first dreamed of forming a male a cappella group from his Leura home.

Kind of spooky: Stephen Taberner was inspired by the Georgian male choir tradition.

Photo: Wolter Peeters

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"What it ended up becoming was not what I thought it was going to become but then strangely enough it seems like maybe it is," he says, somewhat elliptically.

"I just like the sound of men's voices. I had no sense of longevity or marketing – I just wanted to sing beautiful man songs with men."

Taberner was in his late 30s at that time and something of a latecomer to the pleasures of male company.

"When I went through uni I was mostly around women – my friends were women, my lovers were women ... all the strong people around me were women."

Then he found himself sharing a house with a couple of older blokes and revelling in their "nice, warm and foolish camaraderie".

The other key ingredient to the creation of the Spookies, as they are affectionately known, was Taberner's love for the "beautiful shimmering arrangements" of traditional male choirs from Georgia.

"Their sense of harmony is very different from Western harmony," says Taberner. "There are often not chords as we understand them. The sound has a simple earthiness to it. It is not song as high art but song linked to the moment."

So far, so serious but then when the newly minted Spookies began performing together, the silliness became increasingly apparent.

"It was almost like the guys standing up there and not laughing and being deadpan was funny in itself," says Taberner. "As time went on the possibilities for both beauty and stupidity multiplied."

Their audiences also multiplied, particularly after successful performances at Canberra's National Folk Festival and the Woodford festival propelled them on to very well received European tours and recordings.

Key to understanding the philosophical underpinnings of the group is their devotion to the concept of "pointless grandeur".

"Pointless grandeur is where the man realises that he is secondary to nature's processes of reproduction. He accepts this cheerfully and allows himself to achieve ceremonial positions of power while realising that he has no power really."

Thus public figures such as Donald Trump or Tony Abbott, who apparently take themselves very seriously, are "so not spooky".

Iconic songs such as Don't Stand Between a Man and His Tool, We Are Not a Men's Group and a cover of Kasey Chambers' Not Pretty Enough are clear pointers towards the Spookies' lack of self-aggrandisement.

But as the Spooky Men grow older together, Taberner is detecting a slightly more wistful note creeping in to their performances.

"There is a deepening and broadening of the material that is not easy to categorise," he says. "We do a song called Welcome to The Second Half, which purports to be about the beginning of the second half of the performance, but actually is about getting older and moving towards death."

But, of course, they are only ever one cracking boofchord away from seeing off anything too introspective.

So what exactly is the fabled boofchord?

"It's a chord that is defined by being really strong, really in tune and sounding really meaty," says Taberner.

"You know it when you hear it."

The Spooky Men begin their national tour at Sydney's City Recital Hall on April 26 at 7.30pm and perform at Melbourne Recital Centre on April 29.www.spookymen.com